14 September 2013 - Putting off painting

My plan for Saturday was to get in the shop and finish painting the ceiling and walls in the original section.  Once again, I got up and thought maybe later. Instead I wandered down to the International Center. The bird list was reporting many sightings of warblers and yellow-breasted chats and other birds that had me drooling just thinking about it. 

I was dismayed not to find anything new. Since I was fairly close, I hopped onto the access road and headed toward the GSL marina. This is one of my favorite drives. Fabulous scenery, and you never know what you will see.  

Here's the first thing that tickled me. When you first start on the access road, there are sidewalks -- no buildings, just huge fields, with sidewalks along the road. What I loved about this is that the sunflowers had grown up in the tiny crack between the sidewalk and the curb. 

What you can't tell from this picture is that the sunflowers were filled with birds. Lots of seeds to eat in here. 

  When I drive this road I always scan the telephone poles for hawks. I was not disappointed. This is a Swainson's hawk. He posed for me then took off. Poor thing. The minute he hit the sky a mixed flock of blackbirds, starlings and swallows came up out of the field and started harassing him.

He took refuge on a different pole, and the birds lit around him. 

 The hawk is in front of the upright between the the horizontal bars. 

He took off again and the flock let him go. 

Continuing down the road, I had to pull over again to admire the landscape. There was rain, thunder and lightning to the south of me, and I could see the sky was getting dark to the north. I took a picture of the landscape with the dark sky and rain coming.

 

I looked again and wondered what the brown lumps were. To my amazement the lumps were pronghorn antelope bedded down and chewing their cud. 

Several of them were very young with tiny black buds starting to show on their foreheads. 

At this point the rain was beginning to catch up with me. I loved how this flock looked silhouetted against the dark clouds.

Next I ran across a new bird for my list. This is a Lesser Yellowlegs.  So many of these wading birds look alike. You think you are seeing the same thing over and over until it dawns on you the beak is a different color, or the head is gray instead of white. So much to learn--it's part of what keeps me going back.


                                                                                                         I also like watching how the plants change from the summer greens to the golds and reds. Here a few late blue chicory flowers are hanging in among the yellowy grasses. I also found the first milkweed plants letting go of their seeds. The wind had picked up with the oncoming rain and was blowing the umbrellas out of the pod and into the world.

 I sat and watched the wind take all the seeds. It only took about 15 minutes for them to get sucked out of the pod and on their way to their next home.

Looking across the lake, Antelope Island is disappearing behind the rain. 

 
We have had several days with heavy rain resulting in a major green-up, whether it is lawns or desert. The salt flats are looking quite spring-like as the parched earth soaks up the water and the plants put out new growth.

 Even though much of the vegetation is turning yellow and red for fall, the grasses are greening up. 

The rain followed me home, which made a nap with cats imperative. But after all that, I did get out and get a coat of paint on the ceiling of the shop.